Ortiz Family

We're the Ortiz Family and our art is the legacy of our uncle, Angel Ceron, another featured ceramic artisan and a scholar of Mexico's pre-Hispanic art. He personally taught us.

We're from the state of Hidalgo. When our uncle retired, he decided to work at something so he could continue being useful and he began learning to craft sculptures in clay.

He was always fascinated by our pre-Hispanic cultures and this is reflected in his studies and in his work. He focused primarily on the codices of different Mesoamerican peoples.

Uncle Angel taught us the techniques for shaping clay. One of the best known is by pouring liquid clay into handcrafted molds. Another technique is pastillage, which uses applications of wet slip on the surface of an object to build up protuberances or to attach thin rolls of clay to create textures.

We learned to craft each image very carefully and are dedicated to making an example of each design. A new sculpture design takes at least a week to create and we sometimes visit the Museum of Anthropology and History to be sure of its authenticity. My uncle was fascinated by a figurine depicting an Aztec goddess and decided to create a faithful copy to scale with his own hands. The result was spectacular. It was an exact replica.

We work every day with a tremendous responsibility — first with ourselves, and then to make every single one of our designs a well crafted, quality piece of ceramic art.

In our workshop, we have trainees who work with dedication to maintain the quality we're known for. We pass on the passion we inherited from our uncle.

Today and always, quality is our goal each day. In this way, we can share our wonderful family heritage.